


Soundproofed Mausoleums

by GinnyBloomPotter



Series: What Siblings Do [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Protective Siblings, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Siblings, Vanya Hargreeves Deserves Better, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 15:39:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18034424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyBloomPotter/pseuds/GinnyBloomPotter
Summary: Because it was stupid that they didn't try harder to free Vanya.





	Soundproofed Mausoleums

**Author's Note:**

> You know that feeling when you hate the way the show goes and you're just like "Yeah, Imma fix this?" That's what this was. Also, me deciding we needed more Klaus and Vanya relationship development. And so this was born. 
> 
> Special thanks to someone-else-entirely.tumblr.com who proofread this for me and helped make it coherent after I banged this out in half an hour.

He’d be the first to admit that maybe he didn’t show Vanya as much love as he should have for most of their lives. There was a poison in being raised by Reginald Hargreeves, and as much as Klaus could acknowledge it and knew it was there, it ended up affecting him much more than he’d care to admit. He still had trouble in the dark, after all, and people saying his name without any warning freaked him out more often than not. Most of all though, it influenced the way they all tended to treat their sister. 

For the longest time, Five had been the one to give her the most attention. Luther, Allison, and Diego had made quite the trio, even with One and Two at each other's throats half the time. Ben and Klaus had also made a friendly duo, and even though they’d tried to include Vanya more than the other three, it was usually Five who thought of her first, who invited her on their late night donut runs and sat with her in her room as he read and she practiced her violin. 

After Five disappeared, Ben had tried even harder to make her feel included, but he was too afraid of their father to really reject his ostracization of Vanya the way Five had, and no one else could really be bothered to try. Then, when Ben died, the others were so wrapped up in their own melodrama and pain over losing him that there was no one left to even try. 

When the book came out, the four siblings had pretty much agreed that she’d done something reprehensible and that they were done with her (as if they’d even started in the first place). It was Ben, looming over Klaus’s shoulder, who had mentioned the loneliness and attention starvation she must have been suffering to even consider writing what she had. 

It was a good point, Klaus had to admit. The Vanya of their childhood would never have even considered the option, but he knew how years of rejection and invisibility could play with and weigh heavily on the mind, and how the loss of the two who had tried the hardest must have hurt even more. 

It was Ben, once again, who drew his attention to her now, as Luther led him, Diego, and Allison away from the cell he’d locked her in.Klaus looked back over his shoulder at her as she banged desperately against the glass, mouthing apologies and pleas at them, and he saw the moment something broke behind her eyes as she realized they were really leaving her. 

“She saved you,” Ben was yelling. “She’s the one who convinced Dad to stop locking you in the mausoleum overnight, and now you’re really going to walk away from her like this?” 

And oh how those memories plagued him every time he started wanting to blame her, to hate her, to be afraid of her-- the cups of hot cocoa she’d make him when he was frozen to the bone after lonely nights in the dark, the sound of her violin as she played him songs to stop him from hearing the screams, the look of her barely contained rage (so strong, so much stronger than anything he’d ever seen her feel) as she watched him come inside one morning, still whimpering about the ghosts in the mausoleum, the way she’d hugged him and promised him he’d never have to go back there, voice so sure he couldn’t help but believe her, the stark white of her wrapped fingers, hours later, as she stood victoriously behind their father when he told Klaus he’d be able to sleep in his own bed that night, the way he knew her broken hand was the payment for the arguments she’d made on his behalf. 

And then he was recognizing the broken look in her eyes from his own in the mirror after the first night he realized no one was going to come when he called. And as Ben stared at their sister through the soundproof glass, tears running down his face and fingers passing uselessly through the wheel, Klaus choked on the realization that  _ oh my god Dad used to lock her up too. _

He hardly needed to think anymore as he ran for the door, too late for Vanya to see him before she collapsed in a sobbing heap on the floor. All he knew was that he wasn’t strong enough to turn the wheel, only just around a day sober, but that wasn’t going to stop him from pulling desperately at it, from pushing himself to solidify Ben just enough to help him, from shouting for Diego to help him, from shouting for Allison to keep Luther back for just long enough  _ please let it be long enough to get this goddamn door open. _

Hours later, he would learn that Luther’s fear of hurting Allison further was the only thing that distracted him long enough for Klaus, Diego, and Ben to get the door open. Hours later, but not then, not when Klaus was finally able to run in and hold Vanya close as they both sobbed apologies that fell only on each other’s deaf ears, not when she was holding Allison’s face between her hands and insisting she would find some way to fix what she’d done, not when Allison was shoving a piece of paper in her face that read only “It’s okay” and “I love you,” not when Diego was holding her silently for no less than five minutes, tears streaming down his face, not when Ben was beaming and crying because  _ finally, Klaus had listened to him and gotten his sister out of there _ . 

He knew  _ he knew _ that they had not been nearly good enough siblings to this girl, but goddamn it, was he going to try as hard as he could to make up for that. Starting now. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to include more about Klaus personally- the drugs, Dave, etc.- but it messed up the flow. Let me know if that's something you want to see. (it would have lots of Vanya and Ben in it; just a fair warning.) 
> 
> Also, let me know what you thought of this, maybe? Please?


End file.
